Judge Blocks NYC from Ken Burns Film Footage

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has blocked New York City from getting footage gathered by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns in research for his movie about the five men exonerated in the Central Park jogger rape case.

Federal Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis ruled Tuesday that the city had failed to show him a concern so compelling that they trump the “precious rights of freedom of speech and the press.”

The ruling came after the city last fall issued a subpoena for the outtakes and other materials from the film “The Central Park Five.”

The request was connected to a $250 million federal lawsuit filed by the men against the city nine years ago after their sentences were vacated. The attack on a 28-year-old investment banker occurred in April 1989.